Babikir added: "Logic says that they travelled to join the Daesh organisation [Isis]."

A university source said all 12 - which also included Americans and Canadians - were all in their final year. "These students were recruited to the Islamic State organisation by some individuals inside the university through conversations they had with them," the source added.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman told the paper: "We are working closely with the Turkish authorities to establish their whereabouts and provide consular assistance."

It is not the first time that British-Sudanese medical students have fled the same university to join Isis.